Never heard about this..I trq'd mine..

No problems after 2 yrs w/arp's and a stock b16 head/block.

 

So is there anybody who actually uses the ball bearing trick?

 

Well i dont know how old your studs are but the ones i got(i got them last year) have a built in feature that doesnt let them bottom out in the block. It is like a little fat part at the top of the threads that wont let in go down any further. I just hand tightend them down with an allen key and torqued the head down to 65lbft. No problems for 10k

 

I emailed ARP about the ball bearing technique. This was the reply:

"To drop a ball bearing in there is fine. I did a little searching and that is a method that been used for years. As long as the threads aren’t running out at the deck surface you can then torque the stud to 15 ft lbs with molly. Then just torque the nut ddown at the recommended spec"

 

i already put my new studs in like normal without ball bearings..

 

It's funny that the ARP instructions say to only hand tighten, but they give you an allen wrench for tightening the studs further. I've done both hand tightened and used the allen wrench before, and both were sucessful. I think the key here is to stop when you have any resistence, and not continue; this is where stripping becomes an issue!

 

they come with a allen keyed head because even if the threads are perfectly clean and lubed it is still sometimes hard to thread all the bolts in by hand. a whole lot easier to use a allen key.

also if you ever want to take them out, good luck trying to do that without a allen key.